Jonathan Edward Charles Grant was born on 18 June 1950 and was educated at King Edwards School Bath and Exeter University where be obtained a degree in Economics. Jon joined Price Waterhouse (PW) in 1972 and, after a spell working in Barcelona, was made a partner in 1984. He married Lesley King in 1984 and they moved to Chipstead in 1987 living in Homefield, Walpole Avenue. They have two children Nicholas (born 1986) and Christopher (born 1988).

Jon Grant, Executive Director of APB

On being made a partner at PW, Jon was given responsibility promoting the firm’s audit methodology. This was at the time when the use of laptop computers was becoming common and this led to him being appointed to lead PW’s Global Audit Research and Technology Group a team of about 30 based in New Jersey. On his return to the UK in 1990 he led PW’s internal audit services activity.

Jon Grant left PW in 1996 and was appointed the UK’s first Executive Director of the Auditing Practices Board (which was merged into the Financial Reporting Council in 2002). During his tenure the APB adopted international auditing standards and issued the world’s first ethical standards.

He served two terms as a member of the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) between and 2008 and 2013 and led the IAASB’s work on developing its Audit Quality Framework and on its ISA post-implementation review. Before that, as a Technical Advisor, he was closely involved with the IAAASB’s important Clarity Project that restructured and enhanced the standards to make them acceptable as the fulcrum on the regulatory process.  During this work Jon strove to avoid the standards becoming overly detailed and procedural and promoted the idea of each standard being introduced by underlying objectives.

After retiring from the APB Jon acted as a freelance consultant advising on audit quality and audit regulation. This involved him advising a number of EU Member States on the implementation of an independent oversight structure for auditing and providing training for audit inspectors in Sri Lanka, Chile, Cyprus and the Cech Republic.

 Jon Grant at the University of Santiago

Jon was treasurer of the Chipstead Village Preservation Society from 2017 to 2021 and established its Local History sub-group in 2023. He has written a number of history books including ‘Discovering Old Chipstead’ and the Bourne Society’s ‘The History of Chipstead’. He also wrote the first biography of Sir Edward Banks (1770 – 1835) which has also been published by the Bourne Society.

Jon Grant November 2025